Report #3 Non-PNW Maple Identification
Out of the 13 maple species endemic to the United States I only covered 3 of them that are native to the state of Oregon or the Pacific Northwest, Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum), Vine Maple (Acer circinatum), and Rocky Mountain Maple (Acer glabrum). This final report will show you how to identify the 10 other maple species in the United States.
Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum)
Characteristics:
Range: Northeast United States & Southern Canada.
Size: Growth height between 80-115ft with a width of 30-45ft.
Leaves: Grow 3-6 inches, opposite, simple shape with 3-5 lobes, brightly colored yellow, orange, red fall foliage.
Flower/Fruit: Small greenish yellow flowers in early spring.
Bark: Brown to grey coloring, with rough interlacing furrows.
Additional Note: The sugar maple is the primary source of maple syrup.
Black Maple (Acer nigrum)
Characteristics:
Range: Northeast United States & Southeast Canada.
Size: Growth height 70-110ft, with a width of 20-40ft.
Leaves: Grow 3 to 6 inches, opposite, simple shape with 2 to 4 lobes.
Flower/Fruit: Yellow to green, small, clustered, hanging from a 1-3-inch long stem with the leaves.
Bark: Coloring tends to be dark shades of grey or brown, sometimes even black. The texture tends to show irregular ridges or scaly looking bark.
Additional Note: Often confused with sugar maple the best way to tell them apart is to look at the bark, black maple has darker more distressed bark. Black maple also tends to have 3 lobed leaves while sugar maples have 5.
Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
Characteristics:
Range: Eastern United States & Southeast Canada. Known as one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America.
Size: Growth height 40-60ft, and a width of 25-45ft.
Leaves: Grow 2-5 inches, opposite, simple triangular shape with 3 to 5 lobes, bright fall foliage.
Flower/Fruit: Small red flowers in dense clusters that occur in late winter to early spring.
Bark: Pale grey and smooth when the tree is young, the bark eventually darkens and becomes more rigid and distressed.
Additional Note: This maple can grow in almost any soil types, unlike most maples that prefer most nutrient rich soil. Also considered as an invasive and unwanted plant.
Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)
Characteristics:
Range: Eastern United States & Southeast Canada.
Size: Growth height 50-70ft, and a width of 40-60 ft.
Leaves: Grow 3-6 inches, opposite, simple shape with 5 deeply cut lobes. The leaves have a recognizable silvery underside, green, yellow, and brown combination fall color.
Flower/Fruit: The flowers form in dense clusters, produced before the leaves in early spring. Seeds are 5-10 mm the largest of all the endemic maple species in the United States.
Bark: Gray to brown and shaggy on mature trees, younger trees appear silver gray and smooth.
Additional Note: This maple will typically grow near waterways and wetlands, giving it another name water maple.
Boxelder Maple (Acer negundo)
Characteristics:
Range: Eastern & Central United States & Canada.
Size: Growth height 35-80ft, trunk diameter 12-20in.
Leaves: Pinnately compound leaves with 3 to 7 leaflets. Leaflets are 2-4 inches long and serrated, turn yellow in fall.
Flower/Fruit: Small yellow-green flowers appear in early spring; paired samaras have incurved wings.
Bark: Pale gray or light brown, deeply cleft into broad ridges, and scaly.
Additional Note: This particular maple is one of the shortest lived trees with a typical lifespan of 60 years, and is considered wildly invasive in other parts of the world such as South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, much of Europe, and parts of Asia
Mountain Maple (Acer spicatum)
Characteristics:
Range: Northeast United States & Southeast Canada.
Size: Growth height 10-30ft, width 10-20ft.
Leaves: Grow to 2-5 inches, opposite, simple shape with 3 to 5 lobes, red, orange, yellow fall foliage.
Flower/Fruit: Small, greenish yellow flowers in early summer, and red samaras.
Bark: Thin, dull gray-brown, and smooth at first but becomes slightly scaly with age.
Additional Note: This tree grows well at high elevations and can be found prolifically in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
Striped Maple (Acer pensylvanicum)
Characteristics:
Range: Northeast United States & Southeast Canada.
Size: Growth height 16-33ft, trunk 5-8in.
Leaves: Grow to 3-6 inches, opposite palmately lobed with 3 lobes. Deciduous.
Flower/Fruit: Produces small yellow flowers in early summer, and small tan colored samaras.
Bark: Green and white stripes when the tree is young slowly turning to brown in mature trees.
Chalk Maple (Acer leucoderme)
Characteristics:
Range: Southeast United States.
Size: Growth height 25-30ft, width 25ft.
Leaves: Grow to 5-9cm long, opposite, simple shape with 3 to 5 lobes. Yellow, orange, red fall foliage.
Flower/Fruit: Paired brown samaras that mature in autumn.
Bark: Distinguishable by its attractive smooth and thin chalky white or light gray bark on mature trees. Eventually turns black in older trees.
Additional Note: This is one of the most draught tolerant of all the endemic maples, but it is also shade tolerant.
Canyon Maple (Acer grandidentatum)
Characteristics:
Range: U.S.A Rocky Mountains.
Size: Growth height 25-50ft.
Leaves: Grow to 2-5in, wide and long, opposite, simple shape with 3-5 lobes. Bright orange to red fall foliage.
Flowers/Fruit: Small yellow flowers appear in spring, 1in long green U-shaped samaras that mature in fall.
Bark: Gray to brown and shallowly furrowed.
Additional Note: This tree is abundant in Logan Canyon and some other northern Utah locations, excellent fall colors.
Florida Maple (Acer barbatum)
Characteristics:
Range: Southeast United States Coastal Plain & Piedmont.
Size: Growth height 50-80ft.
Leaves: Grow to 3-9cm long, opposite, simple shape with 3 to 5 lobes. Orange to yellow fall foliage.
Flowers/Fruit: Small yellow and green they hang from puberulent pedicels 2.4–5cm long in clusters of a few flowers, appear in early spring.
Bark: Light gray with thick irregular curling ridges as the tree matures the bark tends to become plated.
Additional Note: The Florida maple is often confused with the sugar maple; however, it grows more southernly than sugar maples, and it is one of the few trees that have fall colors in the south.
These descriptions of endemic maples of the United States ends my reports. The goal was to deliver information so that anyone with access to my reports can identify any endemic species of maple in the United States. Also, from my last report I was trying to identify a foreign maple species in my yard, and I identified it as a Crimson King Maple (Acer platanoides), which my HOA did confirm.
Sources:
http://www.orst.edu /trees/index.html
http://www.maple-trees.com/pages/maple-tree-identification.php
https://www.thespruce.com/thirteen-species-of-maple-trees-3269671
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/maple/maple-tree-types.htm
Seeing Trees PDX 